7 interesting facts about George Washington

1. Wrote love poetry as a teenager 

According to the official George Washington’s Mount Vernon website, evidence indicates that, while a teenager, Washington penned at least two love poems while traveling out west.

Washington, who excelled as a land surveyor in his youth, went on a survey party with friend and neighbor George William Fairfax when the future president was 16 years old.

In his journal for the survey journey, two romantic poems appear, one of which appears to be directed toward a specific love interest, Frances Alexander.

“While much isn’t known about the object of Washington’s love, we do know that she was born in Virginia four years before Washington and that her father, Philip Alexander, was a founder of the town of Alexandria, Virginia, just 7 miles north of Mount Vernon,” according to the Mount Vernon website.

“While Washington's career as a surveyor would soon take off in earnest, his time as a poet likely stopped here; he is not known to have composed any more poems.”

Some scholars have claimed that Washington might have simply copied the poems from another, yet-to-be-discovered source.